?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
JULES CHERET (1836-1932) THEATRE DE LA TOUR EIFFEL. 1893. 48x333/4 inches. Chaix, Paris. Condition B+: repaired tear in image; sharp vertical and horizontal folds. The Eiffel Tower was constructed as part of the 1889 Paris World's Fair. During the fair there was a restaurant, Flamand, on the first level. The tower was supposed to be torn down once the fair ended, fortuitously that decision was never executed, and only the restaurant was closed. In its place Charles Bodinier (see lot 164) and the writer Alphonse Frank opened up a 400-seat theater! The theater ran from May to October every year, and eventually closed in 1900. On May 16th, 1893, the Theatre de la Tour Eiffel made an attempt to bring some of Montmarte's spirit to the bourgeois Right Bank, with the opening of Paris / Chicago. The show, written by Alphonse Frank and Gaston Arman de Caillavet was a tremendous success. Using a bold diagonal to create a descending movement, Cheret depicts his main characters in detail, and other characters in the background less so. The entire image is given a joyful, weightless feeling, as all of the characters (and even some of the typography) appear to be floating through the air. When it was printed, this poster was extremely popular with collectors, and it was offered to the market in three variations: with only the black outline, before the lettering, or like this, in its final version. Broido 273, DFP II 237, Maindron 239.
